Negative Reviews
One of my amazing and thoughtful readers left me a comment recently stating that I am going to have to start posting reviews of books that I don’t like. She jokingly said that her “To Be Read” pile was getting too big based on the number of positive book recommendations here on my blog. This really got me thinking about my reasons behind the lack of negative reviews. Of course every blogger has the right to choose the content for his or her own blog, whether it be positive, negative or neutral. I know there have been countless posts, discussions and debates from bloggers about publishing negative reviews, so I thought I would throw in my two cents and explain the lack of negative reviews on The Book Binder’s Daughter.
First, I am an extremely picky reader. I only like certain genres, the style of prose in a book has to be just right, I have to be in the right mood, the planets have to be aligned and so on and so forth. When a book is recommended or sent to me my first stop is always Goodreads where I will read both positive and negative reviews of books. I hate to admit it, but I do often judge a book by its cover. If the cover is terrible, than what am I going to find in between the pages? So, before I even crack open a book I have done a lot of research, reading, meditation, et cetera about the book.
That is not to say that I don’t exclusively write reviews for books I absolutely love and gave 5 star reviews to on Goodreads or Amazon. If I claimed that every book I read was fantastic and a “must read” then you wouldn’t trust me, nor should you because such a carnival of hyperbole is insincere. Sometimes a book will have positive elements mixed with negative but I still review it here on the blog. For instance, I might like the prose of a novel but think that the storyline isn’t quite right. In this case I will post my review and carefully lay out for the reader specific reasons I didn’t like parts of a book. With most of the books that I choose to read, I find something positive to say even if I didn’t absolutely love it and I then post a carefully written review.
But what happens when I do come across a book that I absolutely disliked for which I could find no redeeming aspects? Since I put a lot of time and thought into writing my reviews, I decided when I started my blog that I did not want to put my energy into writing pieces that are completely negative. I also understand that literature, like music or any other art form, is subjective and a matter of personal taste. A book that I despise, might be someone’s most beloved book and I certainly don’t want to offend anyone by condemning his or her favorite book.
I would like to give two examples of books that I did not like recently and, although I finished reading both of them, I chose not to post reviews of them on my blog. I know what you are thinking: “But Melissa, you just said you don’t post negative reviews and now you are going to post two of them! You hypocrite!” But I think that using these books as an example will help to further explain my philosophy about negative reviews. So please bear with me.
The first of my examples is a book entitled A Lifetime On Clouds by Gerald Murnane. In this novel, Adrian Sherd is a teenager in Australia who is coming of age in a middle class Catholic family in the 1950’s. Like many of his friends he spends his time thinking about girls and ways to pleasure himself. That’s right, there was a LOT of dialogue about masturbation in this book. I am embarrassed to even type that word. My parents read this blog! I thoroughly enjoy reading a love scene in a book when it is appropriate to the plot and well-done. But the amount of discussion about personal gratification in A Lifetime On Clouds was just ridiculous. And on top of that, there were many parts of the book where the storyline lagged and I was bored. Finally, the ending was unsatisfactory and the book turned from being funny and lighthearted to serious and pessimistic. The beginning and ending of the story did not seem to fit together.
My second example is a book entitled Lucky Us by Amy Bloom. This book has received a lot of press and has been on many “Must Read” book lists for summer. But when I read the book, I just couldn’t find anything positive about it that would justify recommending it to my readers. The novel was depressing and uninteresting, the characters led sad lives and the ending was disappointing. A lot has been made about the opening lines of the book which states that the main character’s father had another wife and another child. The fact that the husband ended up with two families was a major part of the plot but it was never explained!
So now you understand some of the reasons that make me dislike a book; inappropriate content, boring characters and major flaws in the plot. I do still rate all of the books I read on Goodreads, even those that only get 1 or 2 stars like the ones I described above. But the few negative things I wrote above about each book are all the comments I could muster in the minimal amount of time I was willing to spend on articulating my thoughts. Why do I want to put my energy into writing at length about a work that I would recommend that you not read. Wouldn’t you rather read thoughtful reviews about good, or great or fantastic books that you should read?
I will add that, if I decide that a book falls into the category of my two examples above, I will send an email to the author or publisher if they have specifically requested a book review. Many bloggers will not extend this courtesy in order to avoid any awkward situations. But I feel that authors, for all of their hard work and dedication to their craft, are owed at least a small piece of communication .
If you are a book blogger, what is your policy about negative reviews? If you are one of my readers, what do you think about reading negative reviews? If you are an author, do you read reviews whether they are negative or positive?
*A special thanks for my reader Janey for inspiring this post.
The Book Binder's Daughter 
I have posted negative reviews in the past
However, as my reading list grows and my free time doesn’t I’m starting to prioritize reviewing books that I loved or that at least I have a lot to say. That said, if it is a book that was sent to me particularly, say a galley, even if I didn’t like it, I will try to post the review, as constructive as I can.
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That’s a great point. My TBR pile is growing too of books I really want to read and say a lot about.
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I agree with Caro. I often read more than I’m able to review on the blog and I just find it more worthwhile to blog about books I enjoyed than books I really disliked. That’s not to say I have a specific “policy” about not reviewing books I disliked – I have and will continue to do so – but I as I organize my reviews each month I usually want to share reviews of books I loved over those I didn’t.
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I completely agree. I just don’t want to spend the time on writing about a book I didn’t like when there are so many I did enjoy.
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I don’t really have a policy re: negative reviews but I do find that I’m more enthusiastic about books that I’ve liked/loved so I need somewhere to spread the love and excitement. I think that’s why most of my reviews are positive. I also find that I have a difficult time explaining why I didn’t like a book. Sometimes I have absolutely nothing to say about it besides it was boring or couldn’t get me invested. When I can’t give specifics to justify why I didn’t like a book, I feel like I’m doing the author a disservice so if that’s the case, I’d rather just not write anything. (That being said, if someone asks me directly about it I will tell them honestly how I felt.) Great post!
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That’s a great point. Sometimes a book just doesn’t feel right and you can’t quite explain why! Thanks so much for reading my post!
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I post reviews of every book that I read. Most of my reviews are positive because I pick up books that interest me, but the occasional negative review happens from time to time. I try to describe the strengths and weaknesses of a book so that readers will get a sense for whether they’d enjoy it; a lot of the time when a book isn’t my cup of tea it’s not because the book isn’t redeemable but just a difference in taste.
I use my blog to keep track of books I’ve read over the years and what I think about them, so I don’t want to limit myself to only positive reviews.
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You are right that a good review is balanced with strengths and weaknesses. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
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I totally see where you’re coming from on this, but I’m glad I follow you on goodreads, too, because the more I can compare our likes *and* dislikes, the more I can tell which of the books you review will be up my alley. 🙂 It can be very helpful from time to time to hear an alternative review of a book that is widely praised.
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That’s a good point. I always post my reviews on Goodreads and LibraryThing even if they are only 1 or 2 star reviews. So you can find all of the books I didn’t like on those sites 🙂 That book Lucky Us is a good example because it is actually on the best sellers lists, but it just fell flat with me.
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I have tried, not just when writing reviews – which are of course, written down most of the time – to find something positive to say, not always easy, but trying to apply the old adage, ‘If you don’t have something good to say, rather don’t say it.’ Looking at my own efforts, I’ve come to realise fully just how much work, blood, sweat and tears go into writing a story. So, if a writer presents a story for review, I would like to think his/her homework is done as far as punctuation, sentence construction and that sort of thing is concerned. Then all I have to worry about is plot development, characterisation, scene setting, that sort of thing. I will highlight something positive, but I cannot recommend a book which I will not buy personally, but I won’t put that in the review or encourage readers to buy. They would have to decide based on the positives which I have highlighted whether the book is worth reading.
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Oh, another thing I don’t do is to read someone else’s review first. I don’t want to be influenced. It’s like meeting the new girl at the office. I don’t want to hear what she’s done, what she’s like – let me find out for myself. My brain fortunately has not gone into permafrost yet. 🙂
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I agree with not saying comments that are too negative. I know how much work goes into writing and I just feel too badly writing a completely negative review. Thanks for your comments!
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I totally agree with you. Since writing is so subjective, and on a subconscious level reflects the state of education, morality, and societal upheaval in our culture, what pleases one reader may offend or turn off another reader. Just recommend the books that pleased you and forget about the rest.
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